Even though it rained most of the weekend, we still managed to have a pretty nice two days.  It was definitely a blend of getting things done around the house and having a little fun, too.  On Saturday, Bob managed to take both of the boys to get their hair cut, so now they are looking so grown up and handsome.  I can't believe how big they are getting.  The boys spent a bunch of time outside on Saturday, and Bob even managed to get the lawn mowed during a break in the rain.  I did menu planning and grocery shopping (fun times!).  And laundry, always laundry.  We had our awesome dinner, and Bob and watched a movie Saturday night, which was fun.  We watched Lincoln Lawyer with Matthew MCConaughey.  It was really good!  Suspense and intrigue but not so much that I was totally freaked out and not too gory, either.

Sunday was a little bit more of the same.  I worked on organizing a few things around the house, got Stephen's spring clothes in the wash, vacuumed, and just lots of basic cleaning.  And more laundry!  

Then, we went to Fro Pa!  My favorite weekend treat!  I think I actually managed to fill myself up with fro yo.  It was heavenly!  The kids loved it, too.  We got a bunch of pictures, and the owner let Bob wear the Parrot Head, so had to get pics of that!

After our frozen delights, we took advantage of a break in the rain and headed over to the Huckleberry with the boys' scooters.  Oh my gosh -- they had so much fun!  And who am I kidding, I had a blast too!  I spent the entire walk offering to ride Taylor's scooter if he got tired.  It actually takes a good amount of energy to push oneself along on the scooter, and we walked a pretty good distance, so he was tired at the end.  Which meant I got to ride.  It was so much fun.

I have to say, though, my favorite part of the walk was watching Taylor really glide along on his scooter.  I don't think I've ever seen him look as graceful as when he was gliding on that thing.  Stephen did really well with his three-wheeled scooter.  He was super cute pushing himself along.  He doesn't quite have the hang of steering yet, so he would scoot along and then have to stop and physically turn his scooter to keep from going off the path.  It was pretty precious!

At the end of our walk there is a set of monkey bars.  Sometimes I can go all the way across (I like to do these bars on my runs whenever I run by them).  Last week I couldn't make it, though, so I had something to prove this time around.  Well, I made it all the way across!  It felt pretty good :)

Last night's dinner was a spontaneous, and tasty, experiment.  We originally had boring old meatloaf on the menu, but then we ended up spending a bunch of time walking the Huckleberry and riding scooters, and all of a sudden, I was worried we wouldn't have enough time for the meatloaf to bake.  We considered stopping by the grocery store for some chicken and pineapple to grill out, but we really didn't want to go to the store for a third time in the weekend.  So, we got creative and decided to turn the meatloaf into turkey burgers!  To 1 lb. of ground turkey, I added 1 egg, a handfull of Italian bread crumbs, a big squirt of pre-minced garlic, same with pre-minced ginger, a healthy shake of Montreal steak seasoning, salt, and a squirt of soy sauce (I wanted to use Teryaki, but we were all out).  We took some mini peppers and coated them in olive oil, garlic powder, and salt & pepper and threw them on the grill to roast.  The dinner cooked up super quick!  We finished the meal out with a bag of Cranberry Walnut Salad (that came with an apple cider vinaigrette), and some orange wedges.

And!  And!  Just for fun, we topped each burger with an egg cooked over medium.  I don't quite know how or why we thought of this.  I have sort of been craving a Cheesy Western for a while now, and then we were talking about the ginger and sauce having kind of an Asian flare and how Korean BeMenBop (I know I butchered the word and the spelling!) has an egg over easy on it, and we just decided to do it to our turkey burgers.

It was very tasty and definitely unique!

And finally, today's workout.  Ordinarily, this wouldn't be anything to write home about, but it was just so awesome today I had to share.  So I did almost the whole workout I had planned, but I did change things up a bit.  

The had some new weights that work well with the trap bar, and there were some 45s, so instead of doing 50 lbs. on each side, I did the 45s and ended up doing the trap bar deadlifts at 135 lbs.  I did four sets of 8 reps.  It felt amazing!

Then I did the squat with the single arm presses (20 lbs) and superset it with the bent over rows (60 lbs).  I did a pretty fast pace for the squats/presses, and I got a great sweat going!  I lost count and couldn't remember if I had done 3 or 4 sets, but I did 12 reps for all of them and stopped when I had about 10 minutes left to do ab work.

For the abs, I wasn't in the mood to do planks, so I opted to the ab work I have planned for Friday: inclined sit ups and side lateral raises.  I used a 12.5 lb. weight for all of them and got in as many supersets as I could before I had to hit the shower.

Increasing the weights left me feeling like I had had an amazing workout, in the same amount of time I usually have.  The squat/press combo was also great for getting my heart rate up, and I love that I was able to get the squat work in while also working my arms.  Love, love, love that move!

And what a great way to start my week!

I hope and pray the kids stay healthy all week this week :)

My week definitely goes smoother when I put a little planning behind it.  I'm just a person that needs a plan and needs the time and space to visualize something in order to achieve the best possible outcome.  I found this to be extremely true when it came to my marathon training, and now that I have really realized it, I am applying it to the rest of my life.  This has the potential to work out really well for me.  The downside, of course, is that I need to be flexible enough to adapt and not fall apart when the plan gets derailed, as it inevitably will.  I do believe that control is an illusion, but it is often hard to actually accept that and run with it.

Knowing all of this, I've been spending some time this weekend writing out my menu and thinking through my fitness for the week.

Here's this week's menu!

• Saturday: Buffalo Meatballs, skinny blue cheese dressing, sauteed squash and zucchini, carrots, mac-n-cheese, and spinach (for me)
  
• Sunday: Meatloaf, salad
  
• Monday: Roasted chicken, broccoli, and cauliflower, leftover mac-n-cheese
  
• Tuesday: Asian chicken lettuce wraps
  
• Wednesday: Fish night, green beans
  
• Thursday: Philly Cheese Peppers
  
• Friday: Family Date Night
  

Let me just add, the Buffalo Meatballs and skinny blue cheese dressing last night was AWESOME!!  It was a total crowd-pleaser.  Bob took one bite and said, "We don't have this often enough!  It needs to be rotated into our weekly menus."  And the blue cheese dressing was sooooo good.  It had blue cheese (obviously!), nonfat, plain greek yogurt, about 1 tbsp. regular mayo, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, and some seasonings.  And I would defy anybody to think that it didn't taste as delicious as the best full-fat blue cheese dressing out there.  The meaballs were ground chicken, one egg, some panko bread crumbs, 2 oz. nonfat cream cheese, and 3 tbsp blue cheese.  They were super yum!  Taylor at all of his and clearly enjoyed them!  Stephen just didn't seem that hungry for dinner in general.  He usually really likes meatballs, so I just don't think he was that hungry.  He ate at least one of his carrots and all of his mac-n-cheese.

Another thing I did in terms of planning for this current weekend is that I made enough of my healthy dinners this past week to have some yummy healthy options for the weekend.  This was a bright idea!

Something I've noticed that past few weeks is that I do a great job during the work week of eating fairly clean and getting in daily fitness.  Then, on the weekends, it's not that I go crazy in the opposite direction, but I definitely take Sat. and Sun. as rest days, and I am usually quite lax on my eating.  Pretty much ever since we started the marathon training and Taylor started having soccer games on Fri. nights, Friday has become "Family Pizza & Movie Night."  Quite frankly, I've become pizza-ed out.  So with pizza for dinner on Friday, and our lazy, big pancakes & eggs breakfasts over the weekend, plus more processed foods with lunches and sometimes dinner, I am basically just feeling a little yucky by the time Monday rolls around.  

In terms of my daily weight fluctuations, I have also certainly noticed that my daily weight is a nice, fairly consistently low number throughout the week and then over the weekend it sort of creeps up.  Now, this isn't a huge deal because I am not dieting, and I am not trying to reach some magically low number.  I'm comfortable with my body, I'm comfortable with my weight, and I know that it fluctuates over time anyway.  That said, I still don't like feeling like I'm some weekend roller coaster or yo-yo.  It just sort of goes against the consistency I sort of strive for in my life.

So I've been thinking about all of this and I decided to plan ahead a bit and try to have some healthier options for myself this weekend.  I had some nice leftover meals to have for my lunches the past two days.  And yesterday I experimented with a smoothie I've been wanting to do for awhile now, so I have been very happy with my weekend eating.  I'm so happy with it, in fact, that I will have absolutely no problem going out and enjoying a delicious fro yo snack this afternoon :)

Here's what I've been eating this weekend:

On Friday, when the rest of the family ordered pizza from our favorite restaurant, I ordered a chicken breast and substituted the starch for a double order of veggies.  I ate half of it for dinner and saved the other half.

On Saturday, I totally enjoyed our traditional pancakes and eggs (eggs made with half whole eggs and half egg whites).  For lunch, I had a thawed salmon in the fridge that I needed to eat, so I sauteed that up and enjoyed it on top of a bed of spinach, with sliced peppers and cherry tomatoes.  I squirted some lemon juice over the whole thing as my dressing.  It was insanely good!!  

For Sunday breakfast, Bob didn't want to have too big of a mess in the kitchen, so we skipped our pancakes, which was kind of a nice, light, change for me.  I ended up accidentally making an omelet (the eggs cooked as an omelet while I was prepping my spinach and tomatoes).  I had that alongside two turkey sausage links.  I snacked on two apple slices and a half a banana smeared lightly with natural pb.  Lunch was leftover ground chicken taco meat, mixed in with chopped spinach and cherry tomatoes, and finished off with two of my guilt-free oatmeal cookies.  Right now I'm having a cup of carrot cake tea, which is super tasty and comforting.

Here's my fitness plan for the week!